Solved Firefox: How to always use the system print dialog?

You mean CTRL+SHIFT+P for Microsoft Edge. I tried it in Firefox and it opens a new Privacy window. Probably there is a similar Registry hack for Firefox as well. Anyone knows better please help. Thanks.

If you also want to have a menu bar in Microsoft Edge, here is how: How to Show Menu Bar in Microsoft Edge

spapakons said:

To Enable System Print Dialog in Microsoft Edge

Click to expand...

Just for info, the equivalent does not work for Firefox. I just tried it.



All the best,
Denis

Try3 said:

Just for info, the equivalent does not work for Firefox. I just tried it.
View attachment 23135


All the best,
Denis

Click to expand...

That's interesting. On Windows 10, I don't see the Firefox key.
Mine stops at the Mozilla key.




I don't see the Firefox key on Windows 11 either...





I'm wondering if adding: UseSystemPrintDialog
has to be done in the Mozilla key?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mozilla


It makes more sense to put it in a Firefox key, but ya never know.

I have 3 methods in Firefox 97.0.1 on Win11 Pro to access the Print function, red arrows on this image, I always add the middle one by Customizing the Menu Bar:

Berton said:

I have 3 methods in Firefox 97.0.1 on Win11 Pro to access the Print function, red arrows on this image, I always add the middle one by Customizing the Menu Bar:

Click to expand...

Are you accessing the print function, or the system print function? They want to use the system print function.

Forgot to add: I get all I need with the Print choices.

You are using the Firefox print dialogue. This thread is about trying to get back the Windows print dialogue.

All the best,
Denis

Until there is a workaround in Firefox, I switched to Microsoft Edge (see my previous posts). The only annoying thing is the popup window every time I mark some text, but this can also be disabled. If you have any solution for Firefox, please post.

Yeah, guess my left-right brain doesn't care if the preview panel is on the left in some programs or on the right in other programs, gets the same tasks accomplished without OCD kicking in.

Berton said:

Yeah, guess my left-right brain doesn't care if the preview panel is on the left in some programs or on the right in other programs, gets the same tasks accomplished without OCD kicking in.

Click to expand...

That has got nothing to do with the subject of this thread.

All the best,
Denis

The hack for Microsoft Edge to always use the system print dialog works. It even installed an upgrade today, the functionality retained. I guess I will stick with Edge for a while. I am a Microsoft fan anyway, In Windows 10 I used Internet Explorer 11, unless some site could not work properly, so I used Edge or Firefox. Of course I am talking about the new Chromium based Microsoft Edge, that can open some sites in IE mode if needed, not the legacy Edge.

Edwin said:

Just curious...
I thought having Print Spooler enabled was a huge vulnerability?

Click to expand...

Not really, they keep patching it. Of course new vulns appear from time to time, but, disabling it has a lot of disadvantages I would say. The most important one would be the loss of printer sharing, a core Windows functionality since the early days of Windows. They keep butchering it in the name of security, but it is still there luckily.

I don't understand what does it have to do with the topic's question though. You either use the system dialog in Firefox or Firefox's built-in one, which offers less printer-specific questions.

Disabling the printer spooler would disable printing entirely. If trying to print in any application, including Firefox, either nothing would happen or get an error message.

I tried adding the print.tab_modal.enabled to prefs.js file for my profile and Firefox still ignored it.

Apparently they're hell bent on users using that new UI. At least the system dialog is only a single click away, so it's an extra click - not exactly what we want, but seemingly the best we're gonna get.

The Firefox print dialog (or Edge's or Chrome's) is good for novice users that want to preview the page before their print and use always the default printer with the default settings. For all others that have 2-3 printers they need to choose from and want to change some paper or quality settings before they print, system print dialog is way more useful. If we could just click to see the system print dialog would be better, but unfortunately is not immediately visible, we have to scroll all the way down to see that option and this takes more time than just one more click, especially when working in a laptop without the convenience of a scroll wheel.

On resolutions higher than 1080p it should show without scrolling. And if you change the print.more-settings.open to disabled, unless you have a display height of under 800 pixels it should show regardless.

With print.more-settings.open enabled on 1080p:



With it disabled:



As shown, it is not even halfway down the screen, even with the modal window centered and not starting at the top edge of the screen.

So If you change that setting, it should be a matter of an extra click, no scrolling required. Of course, if you're using High DPI on a 1080p screen, that might affect it and still cause scrolling, but it would have to be pretty high with this setting set to disabled to incude a scrollbar for that section on the right.

Again, I agree, still not optimal, but it is the best solution until we get a way to actually bypass this UI entirely (either get it back directly in a config setting or via an addon).

John,

What a brilliant workaround.

Thanks,
Denis

My work laptop has resolution 1366x768, if I remember correctly and my home computer 1440x900. One of them should be able to display the full page properly.

I noticed a strange bug today. Every other site prints without any issue in Microsoft Edge, but our courier's site has a bug. I create a voucher and then I want to print it. The voucher is opened in PDF format in a new tab. I click on the printer icon at the right (part of the Microsoft Edge's PDF viewer), I select out default printer, then set the paper input to manual so I can insert a label at the manual feeder. When I proceed to print I get a message that printing failed and I should check the printer! What's going on? Any other site is printing as expected. I tried to press CTRL+P, doesn't make any difference. I had to save the voucher as a local PDF file and then open with Adobe Reader to print it! Not very convenient. Microsoft Edge is updated to the latest version (102.0.1245.33) If you have any idea why this happens and how to fix it, please post. Thanks.

EDIT: It does that in any PDF document. I tried to open a PDF document with Microsoft Edge and when I tried to print it I got the same message, printing failed check your printer. Any thoughts?

Since this started as about Firefox, I just got updated again, this time at 101.0. This is what I get for Print, 2 choices, the Print icon from Customize and Print on the 3 bars item: